CURATED CONTENT AND MARKETING

Curated content can help to improve  brand engagement and  credibility, without blowing out your marketing budget. But what exactly is curated content, and how can you use it to your advantage on social media?

What is curated content?

Curated content refers to content that has been written and produced by someone other than you. Rather than creating your own content, such as blog articles, you can share others content purchase, add your own unique voice and share it with your audience.

The content you curate should focus on generating engagement with your brand, building your brand awareness and building your brand credibility and authority, rather than drive business sales.

The content you find to curate should be relevant to your business and area of expertise. It should add value to your audience. The purpose of curated content is to offer insight or knowledge into the things you do or the industry you’re in. It shouldn’t promote your business in any way.

The form of content you can curate and share can be in the form of infographics, blog articles, webinars, how-to videos, expert tips, and so on. While curated content has been around for years, many businesses have avoided using it. But whether you’re an established brand in your industry or you’re just starting out, it can be a powerful digital marketing tool. 

Why should I use curated content? 

Curated content can enhance your social media marketing strategy by helping you maintain a full content calendar, provide helpful and valuable resources to your audience and help to connect you and your brand with influencers and industry leaders. Sharing curated content to your social media pages also helps increase your brand credibility by helping you stay on track with industry trends.

Best of all, you don’t have to spend the time or money researching and creating the content yourself. While curated content is easier to share as it’s less time consuming, it’s important to make sure you are choosing quality over quantity. It’s all good and well to have a full content calendar, but it won’t mean much if you’re not sharing content that is relevant to your followers. 

Marketing benefits of curated content 

By sharing a diverse range of content sources, even from competitor brands, you can enhance your brand identity in the eyes of your past, current and potential clients. Being selective in the content you share gives you the opportunity to create a brand image that is trustworthy, knowledgeable and credible. Curating content also gives you the opportunity to be more visual with your digital marketing.

Digital marketing has undergone many changes throughout the years and one of those is influencer marketing. Social media users continue to increasingly trust the opinions of influencers they follow instead of trusting the product plugs and recommendations from high-profile celebrities. This doesn’t mean you need to send out free products to Instagram influencers. Instead, curated content gives you the opportunity to share content from trusted industry bloggers or YouTubers who happen to be influencers for your industry. Sharing Facebook posts, Instagram videos or tweets from industry leaders can help you build relationships with people your audience already trusts. 

Where can I find curated content? 

One of the first places to look for curated content is within your industry. Who are the leaders in your industry and the voices your audience are following and trusting when it comes to information? By sharing the content created by these thought leaders, you can enhance your brand identity as a trusted source too. 

User-Generated Content

Sometimes overlooked as an effective marketing tool, user-generated content can be a great way to showcase your products or services on your social media pages. For example, Instagram is a visual platform and sharing user-generated content on the platform can help you create a visual brand image without needing to spend the time or money on creating that visual content yourself. But whether it’s on Instagram or other social media pages, you can share user-generated content to showcase and inspire brand loyalty, create brand credibility and promote authenticity. Client decisions are more heavily based on reviews and recommendations from trusted sources and user-generated content can provide that for you. 

Curated content dos and don’ts 

Dos

• Add your own unique voice and comments
• Always credit the source - this will help you build those relationships too
• Be selective in your content and only choose content that is going to add value to your marketing strategy 
• Use SEO keywords to optimise the content for your brand

Don’ts

• Avoid having your own say or sharing your own expert opinion
• Be overly promotional
• Sacrifice quality over quantity
• Stick to the same few sources - mix it up
• Just copy and paste the content



Curated content can help you enhance your brand identity, credibility and engagement with your audience.